[f. QUICKEN v. + -ING1.] The action of the vb. QUICKEN, in various senses.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. cviii. (1869), 116. He hadde with inne gret quiknyng of cole.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 11 b. For the … quyckenynge of theyr reason.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 45. Justification of life therefore is … a quickening or translating from death to life.
1626. Naworth Househ. Bks. (Surtees Soc.), 237. To Eyst for iij quickinings,… xviijd.
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., Holy Commun., i. Nothing that is, or lives, But hath his Quicknings, and reprieves.
1748. Phil. Trans., XLV. 132. After Quickening her Health became better.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. Pref. p. vi. Quickening is a singular expression to be employed in gilding.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 7. 419. The intellectual quickening of the age had now reached the mass of the people.
b. concr. That which quickens; hence, yeast, a quantity of yeast. dial.
1598. Florio, Cremóre, yeast, barme, quickning.
1790. Mrs. Wheeler, Westmld. Dial. (1821), 81. Me mudder lent her a whicknin, an we wor bawn at brew.
